Thursday, January 24, 2008

Nest Boxes

It was cold and windy yesterday but I wanted to get out and get some pictures of the duck box and bird house gourd in the fence row.

Jim helped me mount this Wood Duck box in this Ash tree before winter set in. My cousin across the road gave us two of these and a fiberglass model which Jim put on the far edge of the pond. It would be so cool if some Wood Ducks decided to use them next spring!

If the ducks don't like it, hopefully the Screech Owls or maybe even a pair of Kestrels will.

Here's a close-up of the nest box:

I found a bird house gourd in the orchard last fall while I was out gathering winter squash. I'd never used one before and thought it would be fun to see if the birds would actually use it.

It took a few months for it to dry out and once I heard the seeds rattling around inside it I drilled a hold in it. There were a lot of seeds inside which I saved for growing this spring. I'm sure I could grow several hundred gourds from the amount of seeds that were in it.

I sanded the gourd lightly and applied two coats of a matte sealant to protect it from rain. It's now hanging in a Red Osier Dogwood in the east end of the fence row, my wildlife garden-in-the-making.

"After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on--and have found that none of these finally satisfy or permanently wear--what remains? Nature remains." Walt Whitman